This invention relates to an optical data processing device.
In recent years there has been considerable interest in the area of optical data processing and/or optical computing, particularly because the properties of light make it especially suitable for parallel processing of data or information. In addition, there is much interest in developing so-called neural networks, effectively computing devices which seek to emulate the functioning of the human brain.
Various papers by Francis T. S. Yu and colleagues, for example a paper entitled `Optical parallel logic gates using inexpensive liquid crystal televisions` published in Optics Letters Vol. 12, No. 12, December 1987 at pages 1050 to 1052 and a paper entitled `Real-time liquid crystal TV XOR and XNOR gate binary image subtraction technique` published in Applied Optics Vol. 26, No. 14, 15 Jul. 1987 at pages 2738 to 2742 discuss the use of liquid crystal display devices or televisions for forming optical logic devices.